In modern dairy farm industry there are continuous research and development activities in order to improve the efficiency of various activities such as machine milking, which, inter alia, involves increased milk yield and reduced milking time, while, naturally, ethical aspects as well as animal care are considered.
Machine milking, as known in the art, generally utilizes teat cups and vacuum sources to perform the milking function. In such systems each teat is contained within a teat cup having a teat receiving liner inside the teat cup shell. A milking vacuum is applied to the interior of each teat receiving liner to draw the milk from the teat, with the teat receiving liners periodically opened and collapsed by applications of a pulsation vacuum between the teat receiving liner and the inside of the teat cup shell. This periodic working of the teat receiving liners results in the periodic flow of milk from each teat into a receiving vessel, and constitutes the actual milking of the cow.
Typically the vacuum parameters used, e.g. milking vacuum, high and low pulsation vacuum, pulsation ratio, and pulsation rate, are the same for all milking animals milked by a milking machine.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,011,838 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,054,425 and EP 0954962 B1, EP 0679331 B1, and EP 0403549 B1 disclose different milking systems for improving the milking. However, they fail to disclose how to obtain animal individual milking, which is optimized for each single milking animal.
WO 2006/068581 discloses a method for controlling the milking by a milking machine comprising the steps of: (i) controlling a milking vacuum so that the milking vacuum is varied through the vacuum levels of a given range, while a milking animal is milked by the aid of the milking vacuum; (ii) monitoring a milk flow from the milking animal during the variation of the vacuum levels; (iii) setting the milking vacuum to the lowest vacuum level of the given range, for which the milk flow from the milking animal is at least a given fraction of the highest milk flow monitored while the milking vacuum is varied; and (iv) keeping the milking vacuum at the set vacuum level during a following part of the milking of the milking animal.
WO 2009/085007 discloses a method for controlling the milking by a milking machine, which comprises a plurality of teat cups, each teat cup having a flexible teat receiving liner arranged inside a rigid teat cup shell, wherein, during milking, a working vacuum is applied to the interior of the teat receiving liner of each teat cup to draw milk from a respective teat of a milking animal while the teat receiving liner of the respective teat cup is periodically opened and collapsed by application of a pulsation vacuum between the teat receiving liner and the teat cup shell. According to the method a flow level of milk drawn from the milking animal is measured and, if the measured flow level is above a threshold, the pulsation ratio of the periodic opening and collapsing of the teat receiving liner of one or more of the teat cups is decreased for a following part of the milking or for a following milking of the milking animal.